Chapter 49: The Sacred

Maeve

Troy and I walked through the building, surprised by the amount of noise coming from the corridors as we headed down the many, many stairs to the lower-level courtyard.

The buildings are where everyone lives, stacked on top of each other,” Troy said, smiling as a little girl ran past us, chasing after what must have been her older sister.

*This place is ancient, Troy. How old do you think this place is?”

Troy exhaled, looking around as we walked towards the courtyard, reaching up to run his hand along the wall.

“A thousand years, maybe more?”

“More?” I sucked in my breath, unable to process it.

“Well, how many White Queens have there been over time? Count back and that’s likely as old as this place, and even Winter Forest, should

be.”

“Mom said Winter Forest wasn’t the original settlement of the White Queens. There’s a ruin on an island across from the inlet. That’s where the pack used to live, but everyone believes it was taken over by the water hundreds of years ago.”

“See? This is very, very old stuff.”

I nodded, swallowing against the anxiety tightening my chest and throat. This was an old place. A strange place. And I had the oddest “out of body feeling as we walked the halls. We finally turned the corner and passed through the archway leading to the courtyard, stopping short of the entrance as Duck came bounding towards us, followed by Myla and Pete.

“Where’s Robbie?” Troy asked, furrowing his brow.

“He’s out chasin’ tail,Myla said with a laugh. Pete blushed deeply, lowering his gaze to his feet.

“Still?” Troy snorted, shaking his head.

“So, you saw him? And he was alright?” I asked hurriedly. Myla nodded her head, wiggling her eyebrows at me and Troy.

“Oh, he’s more than alright, I’ll say that much. He told me all about it,” Myla said.

“Why?” Troy asked, looking from Myla to Pete, who was looking more and more uncomfortable with the conversation.

“Why not?” Myla said with a soft chuckle, “What else were we supposed to do while we were waiting for you guys to come down? What were you up to, anyway?”

Troy cleared his throat, and I stifled a blush. Myla arched her brow, puffing out her cheeks as she tried not to laugh.

“Alright!” Pete said, annoyed, “Please, can we talk about something else?”

“Pete is a little jealous-” Myla began.

“I am not!” Pete was blushing. And I had the opportunity to, you know, do what Robbie is doing…”

“Why didn’t you take it?” Troy laughed, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Petey here is saving himself for his mate.” Myla teased.

“Leave him alone, Myla. I think that’s very gallant of you, Pete.” I said, smiling at Pete, who gave me a small smile of gratitude.

“Dinner is starting, if you will follow me,” came a voice from behind us. We turned around, finding a young girl standing still as a rod in the archway, her eyes wide with nerves as she spoke. She was young, very young, likely no more than ten or eleven years old. She turned on her heel, and the group of us followed her through the corridor and out into the square, but we didn’t stop there.

We followed her through the market and across one of the narrow bridges rising up over the river. People were swimming in the slowly moving, shallow water. It looked like a refreshing activity in this unforgiving heat.copy right hot novel pub